New York Festival of Song Presents a Thrilling Musical Excursion to FOUR ISLANDS with Caramoor's Vocal Rising Stars at Merkin Concert Hall

New York Festival of Song rounds out its 2016-17 Mainstage season alongside its ninth annual residency at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts with a program entitled FOUR ISLANDS on Tuesday, March 14, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. at Merkin Concert Hall.

A preview performance will take place at the Caramoor Center in Katonah, NY on Sunday, March 12, 2017 at 3:00 p.m.

A quartet of exciting young voices bring distinctive cultures to life in a musical excursion from Ireland to Cuba and Madagascar to Manhattan with the songs of Ravel, Grenet, Caturla, Mauri, Lecuona, Garay, Villa-Lobos, Berlin, Musto, Corigliano, Porter, as well as traditional and folk songs.

As part of the NYFOS Emerging Artists season and its commitment in training the next generation of artists, the concert features the members of Caramoor's 2016 Terrance W. Schwab Vocal Stars Program: Christine Taylor Price, soprano; Hannah Dishman, mezzo-soprano; Jack Swanson, tenor; Benjamin Dickerson, baritone; and HoJae Lee, piano.

The young artists will be joined by NYFOS artistic director Steven Blier and associate artistic director Michael Barrett on piano.

Tickets are $40-$55 for the public, $10 for students and can be purchased online at kaufmanmusiccenter.org or by calling the Merkin box office at (212) 501-3330. A limited number of advance purchase $20 Real Deal tickets are available. A complimentary wine reception with the artists will follow the performance. Tickets for the performance at Caramoor are $15-$35 and available online at tickets.caramoor.org About the Terrance W. Schwab Vocal Rising Stars The identification and development of young musical talent has long been central to Caramoor's mission. The Vocal Rising Stars, established in 2009 under the artistic leadership of Caramoor's former Executive Director, Michael Barrett, and NYFOS Artistic Director, Steven Blier, is an intensive program centered on the art of song and vocal chamber music. Singers at the beginning professional level are invited to Caramoor for a weeklong residency that offers daily coaching, rehearsals, and workshops with mentors.

The Vocal Rising Stars program has a specialized focus on providing singers with an opportunity to form collaborative partnerships with one another, the Caramoor staff, and the coach/accompanists who also participate in the residency. In the program, the work is of equal importance to the performances, and has had a lasting impact on the growth and development of the artists involved. Past graduates of this program-including Joélle Harvey, Paul Appleby, John Brancy, Julia Bullock, Tobias Greenhalgh, Brenton Ryan, Carlton Ford, Andrew Owens, Corinne Winters, and Wallis Giunta-are now enjoying busy international careers.

THE PROGRAM

(subject to change)

IRELAND
Siúl A Ghrá (Traditional)
The Palatine's Daughter (Traditional)
As I Came Over the Grey, Grey Hills (Bax)
>From Three Irish Folk Songs (arr. John Corigliano):
The Foggy, Foggy Dew
She Moved Through the Fair
Eileen Óg (Collisson)

CUBA
Guarina (Garay)
Tú (Sánchez de Fuentes)
Quiero ser hombre (Lecuona)
Aria de Matilde, from La Esclava (Mauri)
Tú no sab ingle (Grenet)
Juego santo (Caturla)

MADAGASCAR
Iga'ma lo Ta'ndo (Traditional)
>From Chansons madécasses (Ravel):
Nahandove
Aoua!
Il est doux

MANHATTAN
Manhattan Skyline (Villa-Lobos)
One Life to Live (Weill)
When You Come Home To Me, from The Last Five Years (Brown)
Through a Keyhole (Berlin)
Litany (Musto)
I Happen to Like New York (Porter)

ABOUT NYFOS

www.nyfos.org

Steven Blier / Michael Barrett "People have a primal need to be sung to and communicated with through song. The essential core of truth in each song-that part where you feel 'that's me, I've been there'-that's what we're always looking for." - Steven Blier

Now in its 29th season, New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) is dedicated to creating intimate song concerts of great beauty and originality. Weaving music, poetry, history and humor into evenings of compelling theater, NYFOS fosters community among artists and audiences. Each program entertains and educates in equal measure.

Founded by pianists Michael Barrett and Steven Blier in 1988, NYFOS continues to produce its series of thematic song programs, drawing together rarely-heard songs of all kinds, overriding traditional distinctions between musical genres, exploring the character and language of other cultures, and the personal voices of song composers and lyricists.

Since its founding, NYFOS has particularly celebrated American song. Among the many highlights is the double bill of one-act comic operas, Bastianello and Lucrezia, by John Musto and William Bolcom, both with libretti by Mark Campbell, commissioned and premiered by NYFOS in 2008 and recorded on Bridge Records. In addition to Bastianello and Lucrezia and the 2008 Bridge Records release of Spanish Love Songs with Joseph Kaiser and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, NYFOS has produced five recordings on the Koch label, including a Grammy Award-winning disc of Bernstein's Arias and Barcarolles, and the Grammy-nominated recording of Ned Rorem's Evidence of Things Not Seen (also a NYFOS commission) on New World Records. This past season saw the release of Canción Amorosa, a CD of Spanish song-Basque, Catalan, Castilian, and Sephardic-on the GPR label, with soprano Corinne Winters accompanied by Steven Blier.

In November 2010, NYFOS debuted NYFOS Next, a mini-series for new songs, hosted by guest composers in intimate venues. The series is currently held at National Sawdust in Brooklyn.

NYFOS is passionate about nurturing the artistry and careers of young singers, and has developed training residencies around the country, including with The Juilliard School's Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts (now in its 12th year); Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (its 9th year in March 2017); San Francisco Opera Center (over 18 years as of February 2016); Glimmerglass Opera (2008-2010); and its newest project, NYFOS@North Fork in Orient, NY.

NYFOS's concert series, touring programs, radio broadcasts, recordings, and educational activities continue to spark new interest in the creative possibilities of the song program, and have inspired the creation of thematic vocal series around the world.